Crate handling attachment for lift trucks



B. ULl NSKl April 27, 1954 CRATE HANDLING ATTACHMENT FOR LIFT TRUCKS Filed July 5, 1950 INVENTOR 2?. z. M42244.

ATTORNEY Ill.

Patented Apr; 27, 1954 Q ATE HANDLIN TTAQHME T QB. LIFT TRUe s firenielei s Ii-U inskt ceea lit, ssigtmt $9 The ale & Towne M nui e ti e ienen Stamford, Conn a corporation of Qqnnetieut.

Application July 5, 1950, Serial o. 172,111

3. Claims,

7 istentien relat s to. rate handlin at: tee m et etuse a eleetrie. t sts Mere pan tleiiksi m inv ntion relates to m a s. earned i" a Week adapt d r; r ad ad ustme t relativel 9. erete whereby $9 l t that crate an: teiee ieal s up n. e of; the usual lifting. eer eee 9i; e s the es ribed.-

Those s illed t e f-t will r eee ize th tact hat t usua s ate. is. termed ef seri e ei m r ele ed. he izeet lly er ally sule v to term a mzqte t e be e ier thine sther pie e ef equ pmea that is to he sh pped he e eret a ndicated s equ pe wit ns ilermem ers. hat l s 'eiei t sell t uts... and these. st u s a e peta v el" t m d t run rom the exti' me ipe r sii .ee ef the st e to the x em lever iu' eee e th at fer bracin the rate As a feature of my invention, I employ a pair of au omati a ly adju t b wa ad t d. up be me ed hreugh conta with. the angu ar tr s e ete f the class eee bed .9 e te be a .iu t d ead l e enn iea n to ting u faceshus, I em y a p i of ift n tha a e m ntei ed ield ely a p rtieula osi i hen these arm ar ap ied agai s the cr te, and mo eitieule ly ap l d to. he ensu er s ruts, th a gular St uts W ll move he arms i one d ection as the. a s re meveel y the Weekerti ll tewer the. lif ng su fac f h mate Th struts. will a t th refqre 0. am the arms e as. te. pleee them n r p r lat en to lif in em' eees of r in dimensiensof rat s I have thus out ned. rat r bree ly the. more imee fta tur of my invention in erd r' tha the detaile d se pt en thereof't at'fellews. may he b e under teed and in ord r that; tribution to the art may be better appreciated, There are, of course, additional features of my v nt en tha wil b de er h rei a t r a which l te m. h subieet of the e i s appended hereto. Thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that the conception on which my dis? closure is based may readily be utilized as, a

basis for the designing of other structures-for carrying out. the. several; purposes of my invention. It is. important, therefore, that the claims to be granted me shall he of sufficient breadth to prevent; thev appropriation of inventien by those skilled in the art.

Referring now to thedrawmg-s; ig. 1'. isa side elevatlonof: ene endofan industrial truel; showing my crate handling attachment applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a section taken along lines 2--2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the attachment (on. nine y ct my invention. Fig. 4 is a. section taken along lines 4-:4 of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of a part. of the crate handling attachment. 5 Referring now more particularly to the drawe ing's, ana especially Fig. 1, I show the front. end of a truck indicated generally by numeral 10, and supported by wheels, one of which is designated by the numeral l2. Carried by the true are p i mary uprights l4. and secondary uprights it, and movable vertically on the seeondary uprights is a load carriage. 18. This load carriage wi l, f course, be moved relatively to the secondary uprights and the secondary uprights will move relatively to the primary uprights. all as is conventional in this art.

An auxiliary frame, indicated generally by the numeral 20, is. carried by the load. Qarriage l3 and moves integrally therewith. Auxiliary frame til, as can best be seen from Figs. 1, 2; and 4, is formed of opposed vertical I beams.- 22 (:Qnneeted at their upper ends by a cross member 2. and at h i lowerends. by a crate support, plate 2-5. S lidabiy mounted on each I beam 22 of the, auxi ia ame 20 is a vertical bearing member 2&- Each vertical hearing member 2.3. i iormeel wi h. a se es ofheles 30.. adapted.- fQ ali nment w th any Gilt of a series of holes 91 Per 3 s: termed. th I am members 2i-v By. p aei ie a sha 32 inte. alignment with ba es i0. 304. he. b r ng members 28; may be fixed ny desired dj ste pes i n relativ ly to th Ibeeme 2 if t a il iary frame. Through this structure, it is poss ble to. obt in vertie ad stmen Q e. li ti a i t ve to. he t..... eedtheleeel an rage it all .w lleizn ae reseiitl The w h a in members 28 have ecu d the eto an ea r' -i frame d signa ed g n erally by se erenee num 3 T s me is -.end. Q F- the rn of -half thereof will: be de- W d. 'artieu'larly to Figs; 'eureesie- Each he bf th with'a back plat'e'i'lil; a hot.- a an endpl lte 2} Cooper'able w the end. Pl .1 ea h-si of he am 34 i a plate 4 Beer ns i t e e e .2, it is a shaft 4% and slidably mounted on the shaft is is a arm 3?- a. series 4.8; rrounds he haf it th rm. 3.6; urgin it t a ds 1n aga ns th a e letter b a in f r. he a m l e 1 med a e a t es 01. 1 s. wa .46. Eeeh a m suitable" barbs 54 so as to 3 permit the ready locking of the arms against slippage when the arms contact the wood of a crate to be lifted thereby.

Hereinafter, I will indicate just how the arms 38 adjust themselves relatively to the shaft it for application to a crate. I shall now describe means for locking the arms against this movement of adjustment when it is desirable to do so. For the particular purpose, each arm 36 is formed with an extension 56 equipped with detent bores 58. A bearing block 62 is welded to the back plate 40 and carries a locking detent pin 54 normally urged by a spring to the position illustrated in Fig. 4. The detent pin is equipped with a knob 66 carrying a finger 88. It is the function of the finger 68 to co-act with the part i2 so as to hold the detent pin against the pressure of the spring away from the bores 58. However, when the knob 66 is rotated to bring the finger 88 into the position of Fig. 4, the spring will functio to press the detent pin into either one of the detent bores 58 of the arm 36. Actually, each detent pin will thus function to lock its particular arm 36 in either one of two adjusted positions.

I shall now describe the operation of my invention, it being understood that the arms 36 are to be considered as pressed to the position illustrated in Figs. 3 and 5, with the detent mechanism of Fig. 4 just described inoperative, so

that the arms slide readily on their hearing shafts 45 against the pressure of the springs 48. Reference will also be had to a typical crate C with which my invention co-acts, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and having a pair of angular struts S, as earlier described generally.

The truck 10 is first so manipulated that the two arms 38 are placed in the solid line position illustrated in Fig. 2 relatively to crate C. The arms are now inwardly of the crate, with the sides of the arms adapted to contact the struts S as the said arms move with the load carriage 18 of the truck upwardly toward the lifting surface L of the crate. It will be readily appreciated that as the arms move upwardly, as shown in Fig. 2, from their full line position to their dotted line position, the struts S will force the arms 36 outwardly and laterally of the crate and the truck, and the arms will be cammed gradually until the barbs 54 thereof engage the surface L, whereupon the arms will lift the crate upon further lifting movement thereof by the carriage 18.

It will now be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that the arms 36 are readily adapted to contact the lifting surfaces of practically any crate', and that the arms can be so positioned on the frame 34 on which they are mounted, as to be cammed into proper operating and lifting relation to almost any type of crate. In other words, the lifting carriage of my truck may readily be manipulated first to move the arms 36 into a particular position relatively to a crate. Then, upon lifting movement of the arms, parts of the crate contacted thereby will cam the arms into full lifting co-acition with the crate so that the arms can manipulate and lift the crate thereafter.

As was already indicated, the crate lifting arms may be locked in any lateral position on their mounting means, and the mounting means themselves can also be fixed in any one of a series of vertical positions relative to the lifting carriage with which they move relatively to the truck.

I claim:

1. In an industrial truck adapted for lifting a crate or the like having angularly inclined reinforcing struts extending upwardly to lifting surfaces, a load carriage mounted for vertical lifting movement on said industrial truck, a pair of load-lifting arms, means mounting said arms on said lifting carriage for movement in 'a lateral direction relatively to said lifting carriage bodi- 1y toward and away from one another, yielding means urging said arms toward one another on their mounting means, said arms when moving upwardly contacting the angularly inclined struts on said load and moving relatively to the truck through said contact until engaged with said lifting surfaces, and said yielding means holding said arms at said lifting surfaces and against said struts to lift said load upon lifting movement of said carriage.

2. In an industrial truck adapted for lifting a crate or the like having angularly inclined reinforcing struts extending upwardly to lifting surfaces, a load carriage mounted for vertical lifting movement, a pair of load-lifting arms, means mounting said arms on said lifting carriage for movement in a lateral direction relatively to said lifting carriage bodily toward and away from one another, yielding means urging said arms to extreme opposed positions on their mounting means, said arms when moving upwardly on said lifting carriage contacting said angularly inclined struts on said crate and moving through contact with said struts relatively to the truck against the pressure of said yielding means until engaged with said lifting surfaces, and said yielding means holding said arms at said lifting surfaces and against said struts to lift said crate upon lifting movement of said carriage.

3. In an industrial truck adapted for lifting a crate or the like having angularly inclined structural members extending upwardly to lifting surfaces, a load carriage mounted for vertical lifting movement, a pair of load-lifting arms, means mounting said arms on said lifting carriage for movement in a lateral direction relatively to said lifting carriage bodily toward and away from one another, yielding means urging said arms toward one another on their mounting means, said lifting carriage when moving upwardly moving said arms into contact with said angular structural members and then moving said arms relatively to the truck through said contact until said arms engage said lifting surfaces, and said yielding means holding said arms at said lifting surfaces and against said structural members to lift said crate upon further lifting movement of said carriage.

Michaux. Jr. June 10. 1952 

